Action Alert – Thank This Pastor for Appealing

Rev. Frank Schaefer was the pastor of the Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in Lebanon when, in 2007, he officiated at his son’s same-sex “wedding.” Schaefer said he was answering to a higher law when he agreed to marry his son and his partner. However, this is directly against the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline, although they and other denominations are under increased pressure to “change the rules.”

Here’s part of the problem: Clydette Overturf, a pastoral assistant and marriage and family therapist at the Lebanon area Zion United Methodist, says the gay marriage debate is a cultural issue, which should not be held to the standards of the Bible. The Bible, she said, was written by different men at markedly different culturally focused points in time.

In the spring of 2013 a complaint was filed against Schaefer. The church trial was held last December and, as a result, he was defrocked, after refusing to promise not to perform another same-sex “marriage.” Schaefer, who now “ministers” in Santa Barbara, California, appealed the decision and was reinstated the middle of June 2014 by a regional appeals committee led by a lesbian activist. Now that decision has been appealed by the pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Schuylkill Haven. Rev. Christopher Fisher has filed an appeal with the church’s Judicial Council, the church’s highest judicial body, which is expected to consider the case in October.

Action Steps

1.) Pray for the Commonwealth of PA and the United States of America.

2.) Thank Rev. Fisher for taking this step to uphold God’s definition of marriage and appeal the reinstatement of Frank Schaefer.